Air India and Austrian Airlines enter into a code-share-cum-blocked space arrangement for twice-weekly A310 services being operated between Vienna and Delhi.

5 September 1997

Air India's Engineering Department is awarded the Quality System Certificate under ISO-9002 by the Bureau of Indian Standards, accredited to R.V.A0,. Netherlands, for all aircraft maintenance activities carried out in Mumbai.

4 July 1997

Seoul in South Korea becomes online with the extension of two of the three weekly A310 operated Hong Kong terminators. The twice- weekly B747 services to Osaka continue to be operated via Hong Kong.

1 June 1997

The twice-weekly Chicago services, operated with Boeing 747-400s, are routed via London instead of Frankfurt.

11 May 1997

Air India and Air France agree to form major global alliance.

30 March 1997

Zurich becomes offline.

23 February 1997

Flights to Durban/Johannesburg in South Africa suspended.

12 February 1997

Code-share flights with United Airlines between Los Angeles and New Delhi withdrawn. Air India continues to have blocked seat arrangement for Washington on UA's round-the-world 7 weekly services through Delhi.

1 December 1997

Flying Returns, the Frequent Flyer Programme operated jointly by Air India and Indian Airlines, ties up with Frequence Plus, the Frequent Flyer Programme of Air France.

1 November 1997

Air India and Air France enter into a major global alliance.

12 October 1997

Evacuation of stranded Indian nationals, who were compelled to leave the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia before the deadline of the amnesty period expired on October 16, commences. A total of 8,461 deportees were flown to India by November 7.

15 August 1997

First Airbus 300B aircraft VT-EHQ to undergo periodic maintenance check at Air India's own Engineering base at Old Airport, Mumbai, put into service.

3 June 1997

Flights to Bangkok-Tokyo are operated with Boeing 747-400s instead of B747-200s.

28 May 1997

Air India cuts to the Internet. The address of its Website is http://www.airindia.com

1 April 1997

"Flying Returns", the joint Frequent Flyer Programme of Air India and Indian Airlines, launched in the Gulf.

11 March 1997

Flights to Toronto are temporarily suspended.

17 February 1997

The twice-weekly Nairobi services are extended to Dar-es-Salaam which was hitherto on the South Africa route.